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Jack Tramiel
Born	Idek Trzmiel December 13, 1928 Łódź, Poland
Known for	Commodore founder; Atari Corp. CEO
Spouse	Helen (1947-present)
Children	3

Jack Tramiel (born December 13, 1928^[1]) is a businessman, famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, and Commodore Amiga home computers, and later President and CEO of Atari Corp. He is known for his hard-driving style and cutthroat deal-making. Image File history File links Question_book-3. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Poland. ... Motto: Ex navicula navis (From a boat, a ship) Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina Łódź City Rights 1423 Government  - Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki Area  - City 293. ... Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... This article is about the corporate game company. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A businessman (sometimes businesswoman, female; or businessperson, gender neutral) is a generic term for a wide range of people engaged in profit-oriented enterprises, generally the management of a company. ... Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... The PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) was a home-/personal computer produced by Commodore starting in the late 1970s. ... C-64 redirects here. ... Amiga is the name of a range of home/personal computers using the Motorola 68000 processor family, whose development started in 1982. ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... This article is about the corporate game company. ...

Pre-computer days

Tramiel was born on December 13, 1928, in Łódź, Poland, as Idek Trzmiel. After the Nazi invasion in 1939 his family was transported to the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, where he worked in a garment factory. When the ghettos were liquidated his family was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was examined by Dr. Mengele and selected for a work party, after which he and his father were sent to the labor camp Ahlem near Hanover, while his mother remained at Auschwitz. While in the labor camp his father mysteriously died, like many other inmates, near the end of the war. For an unspecified reason, the Nazis claim he died from typhus, though there is no proof of this. Tramiel believes he was killed by a Nazi injection of gasoline. Tramiel was rescued from the labor camp in April 1945 by the 84th Infantry Division. Motto: Ex navicula navis (From a boat, a ship) Coordinates: , Country Voivodeship Powiat city county Gmina Łódź City Rights 1423 Government  - Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki Area  - City 293. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... For the rapper, see Ghetto (rapper). ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Josef Mengele (March 16, 1911– February 7, 1979) was a German SS officer and a physician in the German Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. ... , Hanover(i) (German: , IPA: ), on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany. ... For the unrelated disease caused by Salmonella typhi, see Typhoid fever. ... Look up gasoline in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... The 84th Division (Institutional Training) was a formation of the United States Army. ...

In November of 1947, Tramiel emigrated to the United States and soon joined the army. In the army he learned how to repair office equipment, including typewriters. In 1953, while working as a taxi driver, he bought a shop in the Bronx to repair office machinery, and named it Commodore Portable Typewriter. Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mechanical desktop typewriters, such as this Underwood Five, were long time standards of government agencies, newsrooms, and sales offices. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For specific countries see Taxicabs around the world. ... For other uses, see Bronx (disambiguation). ...

Commodore

Main article: Commodore International

Tramiel started a business importing typewriters from Europe, and in 1955, to circumvent import restrictions, he set up Commodore Business Machines in Toronto. Tramiel wanted a military-style name for his company, but names like Admiral and General were already taken, so he settled on the Commodore name.^[2] Commodore, the commonly used name for Commodore International, was an American electronics company based in West Chester, Pennsylvania which was a vital player in the home/personal computer field in the 1980s. ... Year 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1955 Gregorian calendar). ... Template:Hide = Motto: Template:Unhide = Diversity Our Strength Image:Toronto, Ontario Location. ...

In 1962, Commodore went public, but Tramiel remained head of Commodore until the mid-1980s. During this time, Commodore migrated from selling calculators to home computers, including the Commodore 64, which launched in 1982. Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Children playing on a Amstrad CPC 464 in the 1980s. ... C-64 redirects here. ...

Tramel Technology and Atari

Main article: Atari

On January 13, 1984 Tramiel resigned from Commodore. After a short break from the computer industry, he formed a new company named Tramel Technology, Ltd.,^[3] in order to design and sell a next-generation home computer. This article is about the corporate game company. ... is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ...

On July 3, 1984 Tramel Technology bought the Consumer Division of Atari Inc. from Warner Communications,^[3] which had fallen on hard times, due to the video game crash of 1983. TTL was then renamed Atari Corporation. is the 184th day of the year (185th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... This article is about the corporate game company. ... Time Warner Inc. ... ET for the Atari 2600 is considered by many to be emblematic of the crash along with the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man. ...

In the late 1980s, Tramiel decided to step away from day-to-day operations at Atari Corp. and named his eldest son Sam the new President and CEO, returning to oversee operations when Sam had a heart attack in late 1995. In 1996 he decided to sell Atari Corp. to disk-drive manufacturer Jugi Tandon Storage in a reverse merger deal. The newly merged company was named JTS Corporation, and Jack Tramiel joined the JTS board. JT Storage (also known as JTS) was a maker of inexpensive IDE hard drives for personal computers based in San Jose, California. ...

Jack Tramiel is now retired and living in Monte Sereno, California with his wife Helen, whom he married in 1947 shortly after his immigration from Poland. They have three sons: Sam (born 1950), Leonard (born 1955 or 1956), and Garry (born 1959 or 1960). The Tramiels also have several grandchildren. Monte Sereno is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. The population was 3,483 at the 2000 census. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 348th day of the year (349th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 340th day of the year (341st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• You Don't Know Jack at a Commodore History Site
• 1985 episode of The Computer Chronicles featuring an extended interview with Tramiel
• The Color Computers - 1979 to 1980 — Excerpt from the book On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore (2005), Variant Press. (ISBN 0-9738649-0-7) documenting Tramiel's involvement with Commodore.